When I received the book How to get Rich: One of the World’s Greatest Entrepreneurs Shares his Secrets by Felix Dennis, I wasn’t sure I’d review it. But you can have all the marketing tricks down, possess the latest and greatest innovation, employ a crackerjack staff and still not “get rich.” So I figured I’d check this out, since my business isn’t altruistic. Sure I want to help women, but I need to pay me and my staff. I thought I might learn something. Besides, I enjoy English humor and figured that Dennis is such a character, it would be amusing.
Introduction: What is Rich?
My initial reaction upon receiving my review copy was that I liked the original title much better: The Getting of Money. Not sure why, but that sounds more fun than another “how to” book. Besides, I thought the book read more like a lifestyles of the rich and famous rather than a Making Money for Dummies book. Not that I minded the former approach. The line that kept me reading and had me laughing out loud was in a discussion of Dennis’ own wealth in the introduction . . . Five homes. Three estates. Fancy cars. Private jets. After which he notes that he always rented the jets because: “If it flies, floats or fornicates, always rent it–it’s cheaper in the long run.” (I’m sitting here writing this from the French Riviera, and you can bet that more people are renting the megayachts and the blonde bombshells that come with them than owning them these days.)
Dennis’ introduction is a somewhat lengthy and actually insightful discussion on what it means to be rich. I liked his statement that being rich means you have the ability to buy “time” and “the option of not having to be in any particular place on any particular day doing any particular thing in order to pay the rent or the mortgage.” Yep. That’s definitely the description of luxury: choosing what to do with your time.
Well, it’s unlikely I will ever have to decide whether to rent or buy a yacht, but at least the rest of the book recognizes that we all have to start somewhere, and Dennis is quite clear that he didn’t start with a million in the bank like Trump and a few other American gazillionaires.
Pole Positions
In the first chapter he categorizes everyone’s starting point (and their advantages/disadvantages):
- Young, penniless and inexperienced. He says that these people have the best chance of getting rich, as they have nothing to lose. And not knowing that something can’t be done means you will try anything.
- Slightly better off and on the way up. This group is probably the most talented but its members are held back by fear of losing what they have.
- Senior manager or professional. Dennis notes that he’s surprised to find anyone in this category actually reading a book like his. But it’s a good sign, as it shows you’re still hungry.
The Search
In a search for wealth (extreme wealth), Dennis talks a bit about getting over your own fears of being wealthy, and also other people’s. I’m sure all entrepreneurs have felt this. Outwardly, close friends want you to succeed; but deep down, they actually might be far happier if you failed or only succeeded to a limited degree.
He then discusses different industries and how you should forget about the glamorous ones. He uses a friend who is in the sewage industry as a prime example. Personally, the richest people I know build tanks to store oil, provide food services to colleges/hotels or advise elderly folks on financial matters. Another is an investment banker who tells me that she invests only in dull products, such as doorknobs. Hmmmmm. After moving and painting an entire interior of a house in the past month, I would go into the tape business. I must have gone through eight rolls each of packing and painter’s tape.
The Fallacy of Great Ideas
If there is one theme that comes through the book, it’s that having a great idea is simply not enough. To quote Dennis, “Good ideas are like Nike sport shoes. They may facilitate an athlete who possesses them but, on their own, they are nothing but an overpriced pair of plimsolls . . . Sport shoes don’t win. Athletes do.”
Another nugget of wisdom I liked: “If you want to be rich, then watch your rivals closely and never be ashamed to emulate a winning strategy.” He then has an interesting discussion of Apple and how Apple folks get caught up in their own ideas, and how their philosophy of trying to mold the world to their idea is a hindrance as well as a plus for both us and them.
The Five Most Common Start-up Errors (listing these, not discussing due to space constraints)
- Mistaking desire for compulsion.
- Overoptimism concerning cash flow.
- Reinforcing failure.
- Thinking small and acting big.
- Skimping on talent.
Other highlights in the book include his discussion on how “stubbornness is not persistence” and his tips on negotiation, especially the statement, “Most negotiations are unnecessary.” Finally, he ends with his Upside Down Pyramid for Getting Rich:
Commit or don’t commit. No half-measures.
Cut loose from all negative influences.
Choose the right mountain.
Fear nothing.
Start now.
Go.
Top Shelf Bottom Line: I found the book amusing, with a few good nuggets in there. It’s a good read for entrepreneursstruggling with a startup and not making money. Ironically, I read this while listening to Eckhart Tolles’ A New Earth*, which tells you to reject materialism. The funny part: One almost thinks that Dennis came to the same conclusion in that the end result, actually becoming fabulously wealthy, is not as important as the intellectual endeavor involved in the process of “the getting of money.”
*With regard to A New Earth, while I usually shun Oprah picks–except the ones I’d already read before she spotlighted them–I picked up the CD from my library. I was not impressed. But maybe this was because it was nothing new to me since I’d read so much about dealing with people with Narcissist Personality Disorder. I already had a an in-depth understanding of how the “ego” drives certain people.
This entry was posted on Saturday, July 12th, 2008 at 12:51 pm and is filed under Nonfiction. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.4 Responses to “How to Get Rich the Maxim Way”
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July 15th, 2008 at 1:34 pm
Why hate Oprah, her picks, or anything else?
July 15th, 2008 at 2:20 pm
Didn’t say I hated Oprah. I’m impressed with what she’s done and LOVE that she finally got off her couch and supported a political candidate in this election. On the one hand, I do appreciate that she gets people to read, but she doesn’t happen to pick books I like, hence I don’t bother to read them. On the other hand, I’m worried that she is hurting the publishing industry (already in trouble), writers (another group that’s in trouble), and readers (a dying breed), by being able to influence the industry by narrowing the type of books they publish. Right now, the publishers gotta be thinking that they’ll only back books by authors who they think they can get spotlighted by Oprah. That’s not good news for those of us who don’t share her tastes.
July 16th, 2008 at 12:21 pm
I am a big Felix Dennis fan and have been to see him read poetry.
This book lays bare the painful fact that to be rich you have to go without or cash in other oarts of your life to do it.
What he’s saying is becoming rich is only for those so driven and compelled to do so that they just can’t help themselves
and lets be honest- you know who you are out there!
July 21st, 2008 at 7:57 am
@James. Good point. He does spend a bit of time preaching to people that they really, really, really got to want to make a lot of money as it comes at a price. (and he confesses that he nearly killed himself in the process with the excesses). Perhaps that’s why he is fascinating.